Scientific Poster Session I - Original Research

Original Research
  Saturday, November 11, 2023
  11:30 AM–01:00 PM

Abstract

Introduction: Health-systems pharmacists are responsible for numerous tasks throughout their workdays. These non-patient care tasks have contributed to burnout and premature attrition from the profession. One modifiable factor from the health-system perspective is allotting administrative time for pharmacists to complete non-patient care related tasks.

Research Question or Hypothesis: Are health-systems pharmacists given dedicated administrative time to complete non-patient care tasks?

Study Design: Survey

Methods: A survey was distributed to health-systems pharmacists nationwide. After one month, the data was extracted and analyzed by the study team. The primary endpoint was the percentage of pharmacists reporting administrative time availability at their practice site. Secondary endpoints included amount of administrative time per pharmacist, non-patient care responsibilities, and site-specific availability of an administrative time standard operating procedure.

Results: 303 pharmacists responded to the survey. Most pharmacists reported working in academic medical centers (n=138, 45%), community hospitals with hospitalists (n=61, 20%), or teaching teams (n=57, 18%). Clinical specialist was the most common job title reported (n=163, 53%), with greater than 10 years of experience (n=132, 43%). The primary endpoint, percentage of pharmacists reporting administrative time availability, was 34.9% (n=105). Many of these pharmacists reported one administrative day per week (n=27, 25%) and few had a formalized standard operating procedure at their site (n=288 answered "no", 95%). Various non-patient care tasks reported included committee membership (n=256, 85%), precepting students (n=268, 88%) and PGY1 residents (n=250, 82%), quality improvement projects (n=251, 83%), and research and medication use evaluations (n=247, 81%).

Conclusion: Health-systems pharmacists that responded to the survey indicated involvement in many different non-patient care tasks and a lack of administrative time allotted to them to complete those tasks.

Presenting Author

Nikitha Patel PharmD
Massachusetts General Hospital

Authors

TuTran Nguyen PharmD
Massachusetts General Hospital

Alexandra Tatara PharmD
Massachusetts General Hospital

Tasleem Spracklin PharmD
Massachusetts General Hospital